World War II
Across the Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa Setting the Stage Assault Preparations Sidebar: The 2d Marine Division at Tarawa Sidebar: Major General Julian C. Smith, USMC Sidebar: The Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces D-Day at Betio, 20 November 1943 Sidebar: LVT-2 and LV...
The epic battle of Tarawa was the pinnacle of Julian Smith’s life and career. Smith was 58 and had been a Marine Corps officer for 34 years at the time of Operation Galvanic. He...
3. Part 3The only assault unit to get ashore without significant casualties was Major “Jim” Crowe’s LT 2/8 on Red Beach Three to the left of the pier. Many historians have attributed thi...
5. Part 5Correspondent Robert Sherrod watched the bloodbath in horror. “One boat blows up, then another. The survivors start swimming for shore, but machine gun bullets dot the water all...
1. Part 1Across the Reef: The Marine Assault of Tarawa Setting the Stage Assault Preparations Sidebar: The 2d Marine Division at Tarawa Sidebar: Major General Julian C. Smith, USMC Sideb...
7. Part 7The costly counterattacks during the night of 22-23 November effectively broke the back of the Japanese defense. Had they remained in their bunkers until the bitter end, the def...
4. Part 4Julian Smith knew little of these events, and he continued striving to piece together the tactical situation ashore. From observation reports from staff officers aloft in the fl...
6. Part 6The key to the entire plan was the eastward attack by the fresh troops of Major Jones’ landing team, but Edson was unable for hours to raise the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, on a...
8. Part 8The atmosphere in both Washington and Pearl Harbor was particularly tense during this period. General MacArthur, still bitter that the 2d Marine Division had been taken from his...